THE 

CLAIMS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 
ON  STRONG  MEN 


GORDON 


THE 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 
ON  STRONG  MEN 

BY 

GEORGE  ANGIER  GORDON 

MINISTER  AT  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON 


NEW  YORK 

Student  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street 
1909 


The  Claims  and  Opportunities 
of  the  Christian  Ministry 

A SERIES  OF  PAMPHLETS 
EDITED  BY  JOHN  R.  MOTT 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  MINISTRY  ON 
STRONG  MEN 

By  GEORGE  ANGIER  GORDON 


1347 


SERIES  OF  PAMPHLETS  ON  THE 

Claims  and  Opportunities  of  the 
Christian  Ministry 


The  Claims  of  the  Ministry  on  Strong 
Men 

By  George  Angier  Gordon 
The  Right  Sort  of  Men  for  the  Ministry 
By  William  Fraser  McDowell 

The  Modern  Interpretation  of  the  Call 
to  the  Ministry 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Preparation  of  the  Modern  Minister 
By  Walter  William  Moore 

The  Minister  and  His  People 
By  Phillips  Brooks 

The  Minister  and  the  Community 
By  Woodrow  Wilson 

The  Call  of  the  Country  Church 
By  Arthur  Stephen  Hoyt 

The  Weak  Church  and  the  Strong  Man 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Minister  as  Preacher 

By  Charles  Edward  Jefferson 


Letter  from  President  Roosevelt 
On  the  Call  of  the  Nation  for  Able  Men  to 
Lead  the  Forces  of  Christianity 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 
UPON  STRONG  MEN 

By  strong  men,  I mean  persons  of  intellectual 
power,  who  are  at  the  same  time  persons  of  high 
moral  ideals  and  intense  moral  enthusiasms.  By  the 
ministry,  I mean  the  service  of  a Christian  preacher 
in  some  one  of  the  various  churches  of  our  time. 
If  our  men  of  intellectual  power  are  not  at  the  same 
time  men  of  high  moral  ideals  and  intense  moral 
enthusiasms,  the  ministry  has  no  claims  upon  them. 
It  does  not  want  them;  they  are  not  fitted  to  teach 
religion  because  they  are  not  experts  in  it.  They 
are  not  experts  because  they  are  without  first-hand, 
abundant,  and  joyous  knowledge  of  it.  Such  per- 
sons become,  by  their  intellectual  power,  a damag- 
ing influence  upon  religion;  they  lead  the  public  to 
think  that  the  intellect  has  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  religion;  they  stimulate  a revolt  against  reason 
and  a return  to  fanaticism.  It  must  be  repeated, 
therefore,  that  our  strong  man  is  one  whose  chief  in- 
5 


terest  in  life  is  moral  and  spiritual.  He  is  one  whose 
governing  aspiration  is  for  excellence  of  being,  high 
bearing  in  his  relations  with  men  and  with  God.  A 
young  man  of  intellectual  power  may  be -sure  of  his 
fitness  for  the  ministry  if  his  whole  heart  kindles  into 
flame  as  he  reads  and  ponders  these  words:  “Blessed 
are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness: 
for  they  shall  be  filled.” 

The  first  reason  why  young  men  of  this  character 
should  enter  the  ministry  is  found  in  the  fact  that  re- 
ligion is  a fundamental  human  interest,  and  should 
not  be  allowed  to  rest  in  incompetent  hands.  We 
know  what  happens  when  other  great  human  inter- 
ests are  left  in  incompetent  hands.  What  would  be- 
come of  the  community  if  the  practice  of  medicine 
should  fall  into  the  hands  of  quacks?  Here  we  are 
swift,  and  yet  none  too  swift,  to  see  the  calamity  that 
would  follow  if  this  vast  interest  should  be  committed 
to  ignorant  and  perverse  men.  The  same  issue  of 
woe  is  inevitable  when  economics,  art,  science,  sani- 
tation, government,  and  philosophy  are  intrusted  to 
the  incompetent.  Respecting  all  human  interests, 
we  may  use  the  words  of  the  Hebrew  seer:  “Woe  to 
thee,  O land,  when  thy  king  is  a child.”  That  is 
6 


always  a calamity,  and  the  greater  the  interest  thus 
outraged,  the  greater  the  woe. 

Religion  is  the  sovereign  interest  of  man.  It  is 
the  strongest  force  in  human  history,  it  is  the  deep- 
est fact  in  human  nature.  Modern  scholars  have 
brought  us  face  to  face  with  the  universality  and  the 
momentousness  of  religion.  There  are  today  many 
great  living  religions;  they  attest  the  religious  nature 
of  the  race  to  which  we  belong.  Modern  scholars 
have  not  only  shown  us  with  convincing  power  the 
universality  and  vitality  of  religion;  they  have  shown 
us  also  the  tendency  of  great  religions  to  degenerate. 
This  degeneration  has  run  riot  in  all  the  greater 
religions  of  the  East;  it  has  run  riot  in  Christianity. 
The  most  tragic  chapter  in  the  history  of  Europe  is 
that  which  records  the  confusion  of  Christianity  with 
alien  and  inferior  cults,  the  resolution  of  the  sub- 
lime religion  of  Jesus  Christ  into  a vast  compound 
of  the  true  and  the  false,  of  the  credible  and  the 
incredible.  This  degeneration  has  been  brought 
upon  the  Gospel  of  Christ  because  the  teachers  and 
preachers  of  Christ’s  religion  have  been,  in  many 
cases,  unequal  to  the  trust  committed  to  them.  This 
degeneration  has  been  brought  upon  the  Gospel  of 
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Christ  chiefly  because,  in  some  communions  some 
of  the  time  and  in  other  communions  all  of  the  time, 
teachers  and  preachers  of  the  Gospel  have  been  con- 
spicuously incompetent.  Who  can  stand  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  Jerusalem,  and 
witness  the  service  there,  without  inexpressible  sor- 
row, without  confessing  his  inability  to  find  in  the 
degraded  religion  even  the  marred  features  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus?  The  ministers  who  conduct  that 
ceremonial  are  sincere  but  ignorant,  devout  but  fa- 
natical, loyal  to  the  supreme  human  interest  but  in- 
finitely incompetent.  If  it  were  music  that  men  thus 
shamefully  treated,  or  painting,  or  sculpture,  or 
building,  or  poetry,  or  history,  or  science,  the  world 
would  break  forth  in  ridicule  and  scorn.  When  it  is 
religion,  the  world  suffers  in  silence  over  this  degen- 
eration and  woe. 

Preachers  are  needed  who  are  qualified  to  teach 
the  ideas  of  Jesus.  His  idea  of  man  personal  and 
social,  His  idea  of  God  in  His  relation  to  men  and 
races  of  men,  His  vision  of  eternal  life  in  this  tem- 
poral world  and  His  conception  of  the  kingdom  of 
Infinite  Love,  are  of  supreme  concern  to  our  modern 
world.  Is  it  not  worth  while  to  perpetuate  this  high 
8 


teaching?  And  do  we  not  need  men  of  power  for 
this  service? 

The  work  of  the  preacher  is  not  exhausted  in  the 
office  of  teacher.  His  great  aim  in  the  presentation 
of  ideas  is  to  affect  the  heart.  His  chief  purpose  is 
to  make  character  after  the  type  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  success  of  this  endeavor  is  essential  to  the  life 
of  civilized  man.  And  only  men  great  in  character 
can  render  this  supremely  desirable  and  supremely 
difficult  service;  only  they  can  create  character  of 
their  own  type;  only  they  can  fashion  the  hearts  of 
men  after  the  pattern  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  preacher  sets  himself  to  continue  in  the  earth 
the  Master’s  work  of  mercy.  There  is  the  army  of 
the  unsuccessful,  the  host  caught  and  overwhelmed 
in  the  tragedy  of  the  world,  the  multitude  left  behind 
and  abandoned  to  their  fate  by  those  who  ride  in  the 
triumphant  chariots  of  progress;  and,  besides,  there 
is  the  multitude  of  those  that  mourn,  whose  love  is 
lost  and  whose  hope  is  dead.  Here  is  a region  of 
life  known  to  few  as  it  is  to  the  Christian  minister. 
Here  the  sympathies  and  the  wise  services  of  a great 
nature  act  like  the  strong  sunshine  upon  the  earth 
in  the  grip  of  winter.  Here  the  wilderness  and  the 
9 


solitary  place  rejoice,  and  the  desert  blossoms  as  the 
rose.  Here  the  tradition  of  Christ’s  compassion  re- 
peats itself,  and  in  so  doing  renews  the  immemorial 
miracle  of  the  upright  and  loving  soul. 

To  bring  in  a great  fellowship  among  men  and  be- 
tween men  and  God  is  the  comprehensive  aim  of  the 
preacher.  To  use  in  the  interest  of  this  high  fellow- 
ship the  gift  of  the  teacher,  the  function  of  the  maker 
of  character,  the  office  of  the  priestly  soul,  calls  for 
strong  men.  The  best  word  that  I recall  from  my 
seminary  days  is  the  word  of  a Methodist  preacher: 
“God  and  a fool  might  do  as  much  good  in  the  world 
as  God  and  a wise  man,  but  they  have  never  done 
it.”  They  never  will  do  it.  If  our  religion  is  to  be 
great  and  to  do  great  things,  it  must  be  in  the  care 
of  great  souls — souls  great  in  illumination  and  in 
intense  and  pure  desire. 

A second  reason  why  young  men  of  power  should 
enter  the  ministry  is  found  in  the  fact  that  strong 
men  have  been  in  this  service  from  the  beginning, 
and  that  strong  men  are  in  it  today.  The  degenera- 
tion that  I have  referred  to  in  history  has  been  often 
resisted  by  these  strong  men,  and,  when  it  could  not 
be  wholly  checked,  it  has  been  mitigated  by  them. 


io 


The  degeneration  that  we  all  fear  is  now,  in  a large 
and  hopeful  way,  held  back  by  men  of  strength. 
This  apostolic  succession  in  the  past  pleads  for  re- 
newal in  the  finest  youth  of  today.  This  company 
of  brave,  contemporary  servants  of  the  supreme  in- 
terest of  society  sends  forth  its  appeal  for  reinforce- 
ments. 

Strong  men  have  served  in  this  vocation — that 
proposition  is  not  open  to  doubt.  A Christian 
preacher  first  introduced  to  Europe,  to  the  Gentile 
world,  the  distinctive  element  in  our  civilization. 
The  greatest  man  that  ever  sailed  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  was  not  Pericles,  nor  Alexander,  nor  Hannibal, 
nor  Caesar,  but  Paul.  His  shadow  lies  upon  Europe 
as  does  that  of  no  other  man  in  its  history.  When 
Europe  began  to  renew  her  life  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, it  was  a Christian  preacher  who  led  the  way. 
Our  freedom  began,  not  with  any  scientist,  philoso- 
pher, man  of  letters,  or  man  of  affairs.  It  began 
with  Martin  Luther.  We  recall  Origen,  Athanasius, 
Augustine,  Wyckliffe,  Calvin,  Knox,  Edwards,  Chan- 
ning,  Parker,  Bushnell,  Beecher,  Brooks,  and 
through  them  we  recall  a host  that  no  man  can  num- 
ber who  in  the  vocation  of  the  preacher  have  wrought 


n 


righteousness  in  the  earth,  and  in  the  hearts  of  men 
have  been  as  the  flood-tide  of  divine  regard. 

That  strong  men  are  in  this  service  today  is  fre- 
quently called  in  question.  Today,  it  is  said,  the 
Church  has  golden  chalices  and  wooden  priests. 
There  is  doubtless  some  ground  for  this  complaint. 
It  originated,  I believe,  with  Savonarola,  and  we 
know  that  it  was  the  truth  and  no  slander  upon  his 
lips.  It  was  the  habitual  complaint  of  Emerson, 
although,  when  in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School, 
Emerson  uttered  this  complaint  for  the  last  time, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  preaching  in  Brooklyn  and 
Phillips  Brooks  was  preaching  in  Boston.  The 
Church  has  not  always  had  golden  chalices,  but  from 
the  days  of  the  Apostles  she  has  never  been  without 
wooden  priests.  If  I am  to  judge  from  my  own  ob- 
servation, extending  now  over  many  years,  I must 
conclude  that  on  the  average  there  is  more  sense  and 
reason,  more  genuine  piety  and  wholesome  human 
feeling,  more  effective  administration  and  intense  de- 
votion among  American  preachers  than  at  any  other 
period  of  my  existence.  The  shining  names,  the  great 
national  personalities,  may  be  absent.  The  preacher 
is  subject  to  the  limitation  that  always  overtakes 


12 


the  specialist.  The  increased  division  of  labor  has 
further  reduced  his  importance.  The  passing  of  all 
regard  for  mere  officialism  has  taken  with  it  a vast 
rubbish  heap  that  in  other  days  glittered  like  gold. 
These  things  do  not  count  in  a fair  estimate.  The 
ministry  has  men  in  it  today  of  whom  any  calling 
might  well  be  proud.  In  college  they  proved 
themselves,  in  many  cases,  the  equals  of  their 
fellows.  Their  subsequent  career  has  been  that  of 
the  lover  and  servant  of  truth;  and  to  stand  among 
these  men  in  this  service  is  a dishonor  to  no 
thinker,  to  no  scholar,  to  no  personality,  however 
great. 

I sometimes  think  that  a profession  is  in  the  health- 
iest condition,  not  when  general  attention  is  fixed 
upon  its  great  names,  but  when  the  public  is  dis- 
posed to  deny  the  existence  in  it  of  great  names. 
Men  do  their  best  work,  as  a rule,  before  they  be- 
come famous.  The  fame  of  great  men,  great  uni- 
versities, and  great  nations,  is  not  without  serious 
peril.  All  over  this  broad  land  today  preachers  of 
the  Gospel  are  studying  and  thinking  and  living  as 
ministers  in  great  numbers  have  done  at  no  time  since 
the  Apostolic  Age.  They  have  inherited  only  dis- 


i3 


credited  systems  of  opinion  and  vast  masses  of  un- 
winnowed learning.  Under  these  conditions,  they 
have  had  to  provide  for  their  people  the  vision  of 
God  and  life’s  supreme  consolation.  They  have  be- 
come, by  scores  and  hundreds,  under  this  discipline, 
men  of  originality  and  depth,  of  great  character  and 
precious  influence.  It  is  never  just  or  safe  to  argue 
from  the  absence  of  fame.  The  still  small  voice  is 
the  mightiest  force  in  human  history.  At  fitting 
seasons,  and  under  the  provocation  of  excessive  con- 
tempt, it  may  become,  as  in  a Luther  or  a Knox,  a 
voice  like  the  sound  of  many  waters.  Famous  Rus- 
sia was  defeated  by  Japan,  a nation  largely  without 
fame.  Power  in  the  end  wins  recognition;  but,  if  it 
be  power  aside  from  the  kinds  usually  admired,  it 
may  have  long  to  wait.  Because  it  is  not  recog- 
nized, it  would  be  unjust  and  unsafe  to  conclude 
that  it  does  not  exist.  While  men  sleep  the  tide  rolls 
to  the  flood;  while  men  prate  about  the  absence  of 
power  in  the  ministry  today,  that  power  is  rising  in 
a mighty  silent  service.  Meanwhile  we  poor,  brain- 
less preachers  are  strong  enough  to  do  our  work  as 
in  our  great  Taskmaster’s  eye,  and  quick  enough  to 
find  food  for  mirth  in  the  haughty  manner  of  our 


14 


critics.  We  know  them  well;  we  love  them  well;  and 
the  fear  of  them  in  no  wise  disturbs  us. 

It  may  be  further  said  that  the  satisfactions  of  the 
ministry  are  such  as  appeal  to  strong  men.  Upon 
this  point  there  is  again  some  doubt.  It  is  believed 
in  certain  quarters  that  preachers  live  sheltered  lives, 
that  they  feed  upon  nothing  but  indiscriminate  and 
foolish  praise.  A year  or  two  in  this  vocation  would, 
I am  sure,  be  sufficient  to  dissipate  this  illusion. 
When  in  1875  I went  as  a home  missionary  to  Tem- 
ple, Maine,  the  first  compliment  I received  at  the 
close  of  my  first  sermon  was  from  a veteran  of  the 
War  of  1812,  and  it  ran  thus:  “Elder,  I like  to 
hear  you  preach.  I have  had  the  best  sleep  today 
that  I have  had  in  a month.  Your  voice  reminds 
me  of  my  mother’s  lullaby.”  Those  who  think  min- 
isters never  hear  the  truth  about  their  work  are 
greatly  mistaken.  They  have  yet  to  discover  that 
piety  carries  in  it,  now  and  then,  an  immense  apti- 
tude for  imparting  information  with  a sting  in  it. 
Manly  men  in  the  ministry  get  their  full  share  of 
honest  and  rough  treatment  from  their  fellow-men. 
I discover  no  immunity  for  the  preacher  here,  and, 
therefore,  offer  no  bribe.  Indeed,  the  memory  of 
i5 


any  minister  of  considerable  experience  is  rich  in  ex- 
amples to  the  contrary,  and  they  are  part  of  the  fun 
of  living. 

Nor  is  there  any  chance  for  a minister  to  become 
rich.  In  comparison  with  many  other  vocations, 
preachers  are  poorly  paid,  and  when  the  preacher’s 
salary  is  large,  as  it  sometimes  is,  the  human  suffer- 
ing and  the  great  causes  of  human  enlightenment 
and  relief  appeal  to  him  with  irresistible  power,  and 
thus  absorb  much  of  his  income.  Neither  dignity  in 
the  general  regard  nor  wealth  is  among  the  induce- 
ments to  enter  the  ministry.  There  are,  however, 
other  inducements  that  sing  in  the  wholesome  human 
heart. 

There  is  the  satisfaction  of  a noble  service,  one 
into  which  an  honest  man  may  put  his  entire  nature. 
When  the  day’s  work  is  done,  the  worthy  minister 
may  enjoy  the  reflection  of  having  done  much  for 
which  he  has  received  no  pay — much  for  which  there 
will  never  be  the  least  material  reward.  He  may 
know  that  he  has  served  his  Father  in  secret  because 
of  his  love  for  the  service.  The  chance  to  do  that  is 
the  exclusive  privilege  of  no  profession;  but  in  the 
ministry  it  is,  I believe,  larger  than  in  any  other. 

16 


This  habit  of  doing  good,  with  no  prospect  or  thought 
of  material  reward,  sets  free  in  a man’s  heart  singing 
voices;  and  the  music  they  make  is  not  of  this  world. 

Another  immense  satisfaction  of  the  preacher  is  the 
love  that  he  may  awaken  in  others  for  the  highest 
things.  Here  we  meet  the  teacher’s  satisfaction. 
One  cannot  think  of  Socrates  walking  the  streets  of 
Athens  with  a band  of  elect  youth  about  him,  care- 
less of  dress  and  money  and  the  poor  prizes  of  the 
world,  turning  the  thought  of  his  generation  to  the 
dignity  of  the  intellectual  life,  without  seeing  in  that 
great  rough  face  the  light  of  a mighty  satisfaction. 
And  in  the  sphere  of  the  spirit,  in  the  same  vocation, 
we  meet  Jesus.  We  see  His  soul  in  His  eyes  as  He 
looks  upon  those  whose  love  for  the  Eternal  He  has 
kindled.  We  hear  Him  say  over  one  poor,  wretched 
life  that  He  had  brought  back  to  honor,  “I  have  meat 
to  eat  that  ye  know  not  of.”  Such  satisfactions  all 
genuine  servants  of  the  mind  and  spirit  will  always 
have. 

There  is  still  another  satisfaction  in  the  minister’s 
life.  I mean  his  unique  relation  to  his  kind.  He 
is  with  his  people  in  the  great  crises  of  life.  His  sym- 
pathies enfold  the  families  committed  to  his  care 
i7 


when  children  are  born,  when  they  are  dedicated 
by  their  parents  in  baptism  to  the  Highest,  when 
these  children  grow  up  and  enter  the  glorious  but 
perilous  world  of  youth,  when  they,  in  turn,  build 
homes  of  their  own;  and  again  in  anxiety,  in  misfor- 
tune, in  bitter  grief,  and  in  death  the  heart  of  a 
worthy  minister  of  Christ  is  with  his  people.  All 
this  issues  in  a relation  to  human  beings  absolutely 
unique  in  this  world. 

The  last  satisfaction  to  which  I call  attention  is 
that  of  overcoming  difficulties.  The  ministry  is 
classed  economically  among  the  non-productive  pro- 
fessions. The  clergyman’s  salary  is  provided  from 
the  savings  of  others  who  serve  in  the  productive 
professions.  The  stipend  is  not  usually  large;  it  is 
somewhat  uncertain.  The  minister’s  tenure  of  of- 
fice is  also  uncertain.  Altogether,  these  facts  are 
apt  to  chill  young  men  as  they  look  forward  to  this 
service.  This  should  not  be.  These  are  difficulties 
to  be  met  and  overcome.  They  may  be  overcome 
by  the  creative  spirit  of  love.  Some  men  have  the 
power  to  open  new  industries,  to  get  others  to  believe 
in  them,  and  thus  to  add  to  the  productive  power  of 
society.  These  men  are  leaders  in  creative  indus- 
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try.  Similar  to  these  men  are  those  preachers  who 
by  the  power  of  a great  nature  create  new  interest  in 
divine  things.  Men  of  this  stamp  make  themselves 
and  their  cause  essential  to  the  hearts  and  the  happi- 
ness of  their  parishes.  They  become  part  of  the 
life  of  their  people,  and  in  consequence  their  income, 
while  not  large,  is  sufficient  and  sure.  Men  of 
power  have  made  the  world:  they  will  continue  to 
make  it;  and,  if  the  ministry  is  an  unsatisfactory  pro- 
fession today,  men  of  power  should  enter  it,  and 
shape  its  character  by  their  creative  spirit. 


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